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Many are thanking the BGE technician who got them to evacuate their homes with only seconds to spare. BGE officials said the technician was treated for burn and blast injuries and released.

A second person was taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation.

Multiple residents in the area were evaluated for smoke inhalation but did not require hospitalization.

In all, six structures suffered damage and were deemed uninhabitable. Six people have been displaced. Damage was estimated at $2 million.

Terri Clayman, whose home was damaged in the blast, told 11 News she came home from Yom Kippur services and thought she smelled gas. She then called BGE, and when a worker came out, he tracked the source to her next-door neighbor's house.

Clayman said the neighbor wasn't home, but she had a key and let the BGE worker in to check out the problem. No sooner did that happen than the BGE worker told her to get out and the house exploded.

"I was in the house when it exploded," Clayman said. "My family had gotten out. And when I came out, it was just explosions and flames and everything. My next door neighbor's house was on fire and my house was on fire, also."

Lou Kaiser, who was inside the house with Clayman, said the technician quickly yelled at them to get out.

"He went in, very quickly came outside and yelled for us to evacuate, and so we started piling out of Terri's house. Just as we got on front lawn, the house next door exploded," Kaiser said. "We thank the BGE guy who told us to evacuate, because had he not done that, we would have still been in the house."

BGE did not release the name of the technician but did praise him for his efforts as he most likely saved more than dozen lives.

"He made a very quick decision to evacuate, and we're glad he made that decision, because we're fortunate not to be talking about fatalities or multiple fatalities for that matter," BGE spokesman Justin Mulcahy said.

Mulcahy said there hadn't been any reports of gas odor calls at this location prior to the explosion.

Howard County fire and BGE personnel continue to investigate a cause of the explosion.

Anyone with concerns about their natural gas in the neighborhood should to call BGE at 800-685-0123.